For my ‘musings’ for this Monday, I wanted to bring out some research behind some ‘education’ advertisements. These are inserted carefully between games on your smart phone. If you play word games, the education ads are more frequent than if you play games with matching fruit.

While we know the CCSS Machine is everywhere, it’s not surprising we see the in-our-faces propaganda showing up like this. The simple solution? Stop playing the games on your phone. However, while you may stop, what about the millions of others who won’t and thus those ads continue to be seen?

Below, I’ve going to show you 3 such examples.

Curio Learning’s Advertisement:

Warriors, note this one is targeting teachers. We know how awfully teachers are treated by the CCSS Machine.

What’s interesting about this free app (Curio Learning) you can download to your smart phone or computer: is by invitation only.

Curio Learning is also seeing education as something to be improved upon globally. The founder of Curio Learning is Ashley Lamb-Sinclair (KY’s 2016 Teacher of the Year). Her inspiration for creating Curio Learning, LLC? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.(*Note: be sure to read all 4 pages of the above embedded article so you can see which teachers are targeted.)
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If you check out the blog for Curio Learning, you’ll see a definite global agenda in the posts. For example, “Treat Your Classroom Like a Temple of Heaven”. This one was written by a NJ Teacher of the Year (2016) and featured by Lamb-Sinclair. In the “Heaven” article, the writer reveals that the NEA (National Education Association) is behind the globalization efforts aimed at teachers.

Of course, Warriors, NEA’s ties to the UN (United Nations) and other global agenda carrying education reform groups is no secret. It’s also no secret that NEA is the group behind all the “Teachers of the Year” awards.********************************************************************

If you are curious as to how Curio Learning, LLC got its funding, it’s NOT the Gates Foundation, it’s KY basedKale and Flax (Human Centered Design Company).

(*Note: Warriors, if you’ll remember, National School Choice Week also used penguins dressed in yellow scarves. Why are so many CCSS Machine member groups using innocent penguins? Penguins ARE cute, they also live in a huge community. They are seen as ‘cool’, too.)

What teacher doesn’t wish to be ‘cool’? What family doesn’t wish to have their school choice as ‘cool’? For a more psychology based look at why we are seeing more penguins in our education ads, read this 2014 article. The CCSS Machine is diabolical. Using anthropomorphism (humans seeing their characteristics in animals) is one of them.
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Next Up, ICivics’ Advertisement:

Warriors, note right off the bat the social justice aspect is focused on here. “Literacy” should be reserved for English, or, as it’s been re-branded, ELA (English Language Arts). “Civil Rights” belongs in Social Studies. We’ve seen a dangerous mix of social justice in subjects it has no business being inserted into.

According to the iCivics website, you don’t just learn civics, you ‘play’ them. As in, on-line gaming. Founded by former Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, you’d think iCivics could get the most basic of American concepts correct: that we are a Republic, NOT a democracy!

On Page 3 of the iCivics latest Annual Report, you’ll see that over 5 million students ‘reaped benefits’of the on-line games. (*Note: you’ll need to scroll down the page to the Annual Report.)

On Page 7, you’ll learn how Civics is being used as a tool to drive student’s behaviors.
Page 9 reveals how iCivics will grow to over 10 million students by 2020 via PBLs (project-based learning). PBLs are code for CBE (competency based learning). CBE is used on a global scale as a ‘one-way-to-learn-so-you-can-earn’ system.

Warriors, if you cannot read from the screen shot which CCSS Machine members are funding iCivics, here are the ones I highlighted: Carnegie Corporation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and, the MacArthur Foundation.

Is it any wonder true American civics is being replaced by social justice initiatives? Below, from the iCivics’“About Us”page (scroll down to the “Evidence” links), how “Next Generation Learning” is tied to Common Core and iCivics:(Source of SRI’s history can be found here.)

Warriors, be sure to go to the SRI website, too. Why? You’ll see how teacher professional development is still tied to CCSS (Common Core State Standards), how SRI is in bio-research for health care, and, more.

Otus’ Advertisement:

For the last advertisement, we’ll find out what or whom is behind Otus.

Warriors, this company exists to streamline data collection. It also is targeting all school leaders, not simply teachers. It’s got its data tracking aimed at assessments, too. Why? So you can see learning ‘in real time’. ( I am going to be a bit ‘cheeky’ here for a moment. If you want to see learning in ‘real time’, it won’t be on a computer!)In the above screen shot, you see a sample image for a student. Notice how it’s “Standards Based Mastery”. While I didn’t find the exact image used in the advertisement, I did find one very similar on the Assessments Management page. You’ll need to scroll down to ‘new and old gradebooks’.

(A 2017 Blog article reveals the Standards will be CCSS/NGSS and accessible by third parties.) (*CCSS: Common Core State Standards/NGSS: Next Generation Science Standards)

Among the Otus partners is CCSS Machine member organization, NWEA (North West Evaluation Association). If you’ve not heard of NWEA, maybe you recognize their ‘work’: RTI scale (Response to Intervention) and MAP (Measures of Academic Progress). This organization is an insult to any parent, student, and educator. Why?
While their advertising brags of ‘measuring what matters’, it is data raping in its most evil form: SEL (social emotional learning). What’s more is MAP is used outside public education! Private schools, home education, and faith based schools use MAP. My former research has proven this time and time again.

Also helping Otus be as CCSS aligned as possible, especially for assessments, is Khan Academy. Khan is among Otus’s shared educational resources. If you wish to learn more about the ‘free’ educational resources Otus offers, look at their ‘Classroom and Learning Management’page. Look for the ‘behavior tracking’ tool/resource.

Look further into SEL, RTI, and MAP, you’ll find Robert Marzano. Marzano is notoriously known for things like “Rigor Walk”. (Teachers and leaders are led around the schools with data tracking tools to measure students without consent.) My evidence on this is also research based and previously published on this blog.

You can access both my NWEA and Marzano articles here. (*Note: one of the NWEA leaders believes that if students letter ‘better’, they will score ‘better’ on these assessments. If they score ‘better’, they’ll be ‘better citizens’. “Better citizens” create a healthy economic system so everyone can benefit. I pointed this out in one of my NWEA articles. Look for it.)

Finally, from Otus’s Blog, an article from January 2018, will show you how to choose the best on-line formative assessment. The research Otus is relying on for helping schools choose the correct assessment? The George Lucas Educational Foundation!

Closing:

Warriors, before we part for today, I wanted to share with you a June 2017 article I wrote centered on the HARD and SOFT Goals embedded in SEL and Common Core. This article is not only vital to understanding why technology can be used against us in education and assessments, it’s vital to see how it ties to education in 2018 and beyond.

Look below. What you see is actual evidence from a concerned Mom from the Raleigh, NC area. She’s been with me, fighting the CCSS Machine in NC, for quite a while now.

This is the front page of the letter received by the concerned parent.

Warriors, take note of the fine print, Harvard University Research is to receive this personal information. Harvard’s located in MA, not NC! Why is an NC school district farming personal information and data to an Ivy League School?

Next, is the middle page of the letter that was sent home.

This form, as you can see is in the event you have more than one child in the same school system.

Below, is the back page of the letter received.

Warriors, from the appearance of this part of the letter, all the data issues seem to be ‘not a big deal’, but as we know, all is never as it seems when it comes to our child’s personal information OR their school data.

To complete the guise of ‘friendly’ research data gathering, the folks behind the Wake County School System and the Harvard team, even give you a postage-paid envelope to mail the letter in!

Foe #1:

Warriors, I’ve repeatedly shown you have up to its neck in CCSS Machine business Harvard University has been over the course of my published blog.

From their partnership with Pearson Publishing to create the “Pathways to Prosperity”which in turn spur on the “Career Pathways” of the CCSS (Common Core State Standards), STEM (Science, Technology,Engineering, and, Math) and the CTE (Career Tech Education) alignment, as well as create a hotbed for social justice alignment. Then, there’s the micro-managementof school counselors with the co-operation of former President and First Lady Obama, which will impact students in K-12th and/or college, where the Harvard grab for adult learners goes into hyper-drive.

We can’t leave Harvard’s activity in the CCSS Machine there, Warriors. The University has played a big part in the Career Pathways transformation to CBE (Competency Based Education), right along with InACOL, the Gates Foundation, and others.

Oh, and if you didn’t know it,3rd grade students (and older) can thank Harvard for their undermining reading and writing for job skill training! The final blow to Harvard’s‘respected’ reputation, at least as far as an anti Fed Ed Warrior’s perspective goes, will be the global education push that Harvard pitches us into as part of the GECN (Global Education Conference Network).

When you visit the website (embedded in ‘team’ above), you will see almost nothing. There’s very little wording. As far as the school districts using “My Student’s Team”? Three. One is Manchester Public Schools, another is Winsdor Public Schools. Wake is the only school system which is a county-wide one using the ‘friendly’ student support team.

Since I have no clue where Manchester and Windsor are located, I will use what information I do have. I hope wherever the Manchester and Winsdor parents are, the following information will be useful.

What does the Team do for the student? As it appears on the first page of the letter my fellow Warrior received, it looks like a non-family member contact for your student. But notice the wording. I’m going to give you full access to my student I’m interested in knowing more about permission to access his/her behavior records?!

I understand,Warriors, this is a research project with a rubber stamp, but rubber won’t keep data safe.

The letter states a team member should be one who’s interested in knowing more about a student who’s a) not a parent, b) not normally in contact with the school, and c) by the legal guardian! Warriors, do you see what I see?

STRANGER DANGER!We (meaning those who consent) are to readily and willingly hand over sensitive information to a nameless, faceless ‘team’ via the post office! By allowing these people I don’t know very well/don’t know at all because they live so far away, what am I really signing up for? Who will background check my choice of ‘support person’ for my student? Who is going to be looking into MY records? For what purpose?

From Raleigh, NC to Harvard, MA is over 700 miles. It also passes through several States, thereby crossing state lines. Is this safe? Is the submission of consent by this ‘non-parent’ giving FULL disclosure? Do those signing this paper realize that given consent means whoever or whatever group Harvard shares this information with will be deemed as ‘okay’ by you, under the current FERPA regulations?

Warriors, because FERPA was changed and large loopholes exist NOW, no agreement seeking your permission should be trusted as ‘safe’!

How do I know? Child Abuse in the Classroom has an entire section on the real truth about how unsafe FERPA is when it comes to private information. Because of the loopholes, you have NO clue who or where Harvard will share this data. Access the Child Abuse in the Classroom’s FERPA link,here.

(*Note: if you are ready to keep your student’s data safe, or, to see FERPA restored so that your child’s information IS safe, please join the grassroots national campaign called “Child Abuse in the Classroom” today!)

Harvard University, Wake County Schools, and SREE:

Warriors, how DIDWake County Schools get the attention of Harvard University to become an experimental research subject?

One connection I found was a 2016 Conference listed on Harvard University’s website where an official from the Wake Co. system was featured as a speaker. The Conference was one for SREE (Society for Research on Education Effectiveness). You’ll be interested to know that the CCSS Machine member organization, AIR was a main sponsor. (AIR is short from American Institutes for Research)Two of the SREE Board of Directors are Harvard University employees. AIR is also represented on the Board of Directors. According to the Gates Foundation Grants website, SREE has received 2 grants. Both were in 2013.

I’ve provided the full 29 page program from that Conference. Another huge CCSS Machine member group in attendance: WestEd.

Foe #3:

However, it’s Matthew Lenard (green arrows) which is the name connecting the Wake County Schools to Harvard.

His resume is steeped in the CCSS Machine’s rhetoric. He’s held a position with SREB (Southern Regional Education Board) which has received funds from the Gates Foundation as well as other big name groups shoving the modern education reform down our throats. In fact, SREB is one of the main groups using CCSS Machine money and resources to push the agenda onto school leaders, especially the counselors! (*Note: the highlighted phrase will give you access to every one of my SREB researched articles)

According to his LinkedIn Profile, Lenard is with the Wake County Public School System as a data and accountability officer. Here’s a quote, ” I joined WCPSS through the Strategic Data Project (SDP), a initiative housed at the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. SDP partners with districts, school networks, and state agencies across the U.S. to transform the use of data in education.”

Lenard is tapped for the SREE 2018 Conference, where a featured speaker from WestEd will lead the attendees down the data strewn path of student information.

Foe #4:

Below, is a screen shot for the SDP (Strategic Data Project). Wake County’s been a partner since 2011. Gates Foundation grants to SDP: two, 1 in 2017 to the State of KY’s Dept. of Education for the data mining and one in 2012 directly to Harvard. Source

To see the SDPPartner List, visit here. To see the Harvard created College-going Diagnostic Tool for Wake County, visit here.

Related: This 2010 You Tube video features a woman from the IES speaking to an SREE audience about ‘practice guides’. Listen about the 1:14 minute mark when you’ll hear how behavior modification was almost casually mentioned. While the direct link in the comments to the video no longer exist, I did find some IES Practice Guides which may very well be the type of behavior modification the woman was referring to. In the modification plans? Multi-tier support and Response to Intervention. Both of these are ESSA mandates for our children.

From Harvard’s Center for Education PolicyResearch, this screen shot from a 2016SurveyReport.

Since we’re in the latter part of 2017, and this Report is still awaiting student data, where has the data been since collected? Warriors, do not only look at what we’re being told, but also ask about all the other details being left out on purpose! (*Note: by clicking on ‘Research’, you’ll be able to access the Harvard Center for Education Policy publications.)

Warriors, since we know ESSA’s mandates include assessments. Research like this will continue theassessment alignmentcycle going.

Warriors, we know the data mining is intrusive. We know it violates our civil rights.
My most recent NC interview where we talked about data in the classroom. (Sept. 3, 2017)
I thank the CCTA (Coast Carolina Taxpayers Assoc.) for inviting me. (*Note: I mistakenly used the amount of $89 million in reference to the ESSA funds set aside for digital and technology. It should be $849 million.)

To my fellow Anti CCSS/Fed Led Ed Warriors, I have gathered the following miscellaneous Pro Common Core fodder. Why? Since ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) is now law, the propaganda from the CCSS Machine is working overtime to produce as much BS as it can.

If you haven’t seen the following items, you should! While the false facts are flying, we have to work HARDER to share the truth! Is this a challenge? Of course it is! Can we do it?! Sure we can!! Share this article with other anti CCSS/Fed Led Ed Warriors, discuss what you can do to help those in your area find out what REALLY is going on, not what the CCSS Machinecronies say!!

First up, the President of the NEA (National Educators Association) gives us a rundown of all teachers do in today’s classrooms. Notice where the true education ends up in her list. Notice the arrogance in her face as she runs down this list and then remember ALL the latest CCSS Machine moves, resources, and legislation which has been produced in the name of parental right being usurped or taken away! It is no wonder the CCSS Machine claims kids don’t need parents!

Secondly, as one of my fellow Anti CCSS Warriors stated, ‘who needs the truth, it just gets ignored.’ This particular video gives us a look into MORE of what is happening in our schools. I guess the NEA failed to mention this on their snarky list.

Related: Where are the RTIitems in the ESSA? For one thing, they will appear via 21st Century Community Learning Centers/Full Community Schools and through Promise Neighborhood Programs. See: https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/meet-your-new-neighbor-essa-seriously/To help illustrate this, see the screen shot below from my first article in a series of 3 where I laid out the 2017 Federal Budget Education Requests (think almost $70 billion dollars). The link to the article is immediately beneath the screen shot. You can access it to not only get the ESSA Final Conference Report download, but you can access the other two articles detailing the Budget plans, as well as how it fits in the ESSA. The Budget Requests will also reveal how entire communities, the post-secondary educational system, teachers and leaders, and each State will be impacted.

To see Pearson Publishing’s rapid moves in the RTI portion of education, be sure to read this article from last month. The second portion exposes the main programs used for RTIs. https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/pearsons-gi-more-alignment-in-the-workplace/

Closing:

I hope you will continue to help me raise as much awareness to what the REAL truths are about the ESSA. Do not be discouraged if you feel NO ONE is listening. Among the Warriors, we have heard the term ‘crickets’ when we think no one cares.

It is easy to believe no one is hearing you, especially when life is so busy. However, please know that your voice is probably being heard by someone. It is your voice those around you need to hear LOUDER than those spewing lies and making light of how our educational system in being ruined and transformed into a nanny’s house. Remember, to speak LOUDER doesn’t mean we have to shout, it just means we have to use a firm, knowledge based voice.

To say something is fine, but to have the actual language and what it means is what will make your voices BOOM! Still not sure about HOW you can make a BOOMING voice without yelling? Look at the screen shot above. That is a start. It gives the specific sections you can point others to. Think your legislative/local leaders have actually read the over 1,000 page ESSA Report OR the almost 400 page ESSA Law? I doubt it. Why? If they had, they would be jumping up and down with anger of just how this Law will HARM America, not FIX it! If you would like my 2 and 1/2 page PDF document which is very similar to the screen shot above. While I made it for my NC State Legislators, it is suitable for ALL the States. HOW? Each of our States will experience the SAME mandates of the ESSA! NCedover

If you need to add your contact information, please do. If you need to address this to your State, please do so, as well. Should you need me for any reasons connected to this War Against the Core (or you wish your Legislators to contact me), all my information is included.